Bah

Music: Talk To Me - Jill Scott

Didn't really do anything today. Woke up at noon , read a little, took a shower, went to my apartment. But then I had the fortunate circumstance of being at my apartment while Lyndsy was at her house, and she lives behind me, so we hung out and went to dinner and urban and borders with her bf Brandon. We looked at erotica books. It was fun. While I was at my apartment, I realized how truly disorganized my life has become since school let out and how many of my belongings have disappeared.

The Missing List:

-my purple medium barrel curling iron (hence I use my triple barrel instead)
-my purple nalgene (My nalgene was my constant companion during a summer at camp, fall classes, and student teaching. And used Aquafina bottles don't fill the empty space in my soul.)
-my Dell DJ charger (which has led to me reading magazines while working out...there've been slim pickins at the gym. I know it's gonna be a tough workout when I go and all that's left on the reading rack are The New Yorker and Forbes. Making it through 45 minutes of continuous cardio is much more palatable if I'm reading about Jessica Simpson or makeup tips or 25 Ways to Please Your Man. Much more.)
-my guitar tuner (I haven't been able to play guitar in a while. Which is painful when the wave of creativity strikes me. I even cut my nails for the occassion, which turned out to be a non-occassion.)
-Lusty Lynn (who I haven't seen in like a week)


This is Flynn and me on New Year's Eve. Between the two of us, we were about 4 bottles of cheap champagne into the evening. It was our first drinking experience together. This was pre-me falling down the stairs outside my apartment building. Nobody helped me up. Bastards.

I don't really have anything else to say about me and Flynn. I was just excited to use the picture posting option. But if you need another tidbit about us, you can know that we currently spend our time being unemployed, working out at the Washtenaw County Rec Center, and making multiple trips to Dairy Queen. But hey. We deserve it. Especially since we haven't had a summer together since high school. We're reliving the old days. The old days with a new spin. We still sing and dance in the car. Well, she dances. I move awkwardly using every motor skill I have. I dance horribly on purpose because then everybody knows I'm trying to be horrible, which makes me funny and not horrible. If I were to dance for real, then everybody would think I wasn't trying to be horrible, but that I was just an unfortunate monstrosity on the dancefloor. How did I get on this topic? Bah.

Joy in the morning!

Music: Never Can Say Goodbye - Jackson 5

This is the longest committment I've had to working out ever. I've been working out regularly since the end of April. I actually look forward to working out...my workouts are long but simple and I do it at a level so that I'm not dying the whole time and so it doesn't take long to get my heartrate back to normal after I'm done. I'm so proud of myself...not necessarily of dropping weight but of keeping this promise to myself. It's been a long time coming. I'm finally losing the weight I gained in college. Yesssss. I wish that I was able to do this earlier and while I was still in school but what it took was me not having ANYTHING to do but work out. I want to lose another ten pounds....ten pounds would change my life. Nobody has any idea how much of a plague this weight has been. I feel pretty good already, and I'm still ten pounds heavier than I'd like to be. I haven't felt this good about my body in a long time. Probably ever. Even in high school, when I was like 130 pounds. Maybe because I can appreciate that some of the weight I put on made me curvier and that I also appreciate the progress I've made so far in losing the excess. I weighed myself today after my workout and I lost another 1.4 pounds. It makes me want to work out like twice as often. Super duper!

Cutie pie Flip and me

Make your money work for you

Music: Playas de Barbate - Chambao

It's pretty much necessary that I never spend money ever again. At least until I have some sort of income. I am determined to open my next Visa bill and actually be able to breathe. I went to Chicago this weekend and spent $250, which was probably $200 more than I wanted to spend. I feel better knowing that all the things I bought were things I needed. They were investments. Things I'll have for a long time. But still, I would love to be able to not spend money on anything but gas the rest of the summer. This week I am going to take a bunch of money out of my savings account and put it into a mutual fund of some sort or invest it. Once I have a full time job, I'm going to have mutual funds up the wazoo. I'm not planning on making a whole lot of money when I have a career, so I'm gonna set myself up now.

When I have kids, I'm going to make them put money in the bank. If they get money for their birthday or Christmas from relatives, you better believe that mom's gonna put most of it in the bank. I know a lot of people that have zero savings, and I want my kids to start saving early. In fact, I'll have them investing by the time they have a couple hundred to their name. You gotta train them young.

These verses have been on my mind

Music: Healed - Nichole Nordeman

My grandma passed away last week and I thought I would post this website that has her life story and some pictures. It's really nicely put together. If you're of the praying type, my grandpa could use your prayers. He had a stroke in February and has limited physical ability, and now his wife of 57 years has passed away.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:7

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. - 2 Corinthians 12:9

These are my prayers for anyone who has lost a loved one. I know my grandma is in heaven, where she wants to be, and I praise God for that. Once you truly realize that you are weak and that your own earthly power is fleeting, you learn how to trust God a little more. You realize that you are not meant to do things on your own. Sometimes I know my own weaknesses so well that I feel them in my bones and I see them in the mirror. It's tough to get to that place of recognition. It's one thing to travel there, it's another thing to sit there and stay a while...at least long enough to relinquish your control. It's emotional and painful. You get confused. You get tired. You cry as you try to helm the storm inside you. You'd rather be doing anything else. And most people do. A lot of people try to "stay strong" and carry a burden that was meant for God. But you have to realize who you really are. You are a person who God is waiting to bestow mercy upon if you ask. I have prayed for God to break me down to the point of submission where I have nothing left to do but give everything to him. Surrendering to God happens to be something I suck at. I wish it happened more often but it's so hard. This simple idea is wildly difficult in its process. True strength lies in embracing the knowledge you are weak, but that God is not.

My grandma:
http://www.lifestorynet.com/memories/14283/

Taking the plunge

This is my first post for blogspot. It feels good. After a two and a half year love affair with livejournal, it was time to pull the plug. As evidenced by my lack of committment over the last few months, I knew our relationship had run its course. I thought that maybe I needed a change of scenery so I traipsed around the web for a little while, set up a few tester blogs, and finally decided on this one. I don't think I'll shut down livejournal, because in a way it's my personal masterpiece, and to be totally emo, I don't think anybody's words should be silenced. Especially after experiencing legitimization via internet publishing. So yeah. Here I am. The world is my oyster.